The Earthly Child
by all10xs
Summary: Ivy Regalson used to have a semi-normal life- before she lost everything. Now she's got The Doctor acting as her surrogate parent. How will he handle that? How will she?


A/N: This story automatically assumes that Susan Foreman/Campbell(AKA the Doctor's granddaughter from the 1963 series) lived in London, but I tried to keep things a bit vague, just because there are a lot of different opinions on what happened to her.

I tried to make the OC as flawed but as real as any person, and NO the OC will not become the Doctor's love interest.

Also, this is pre-Donna-as-a-companion Just for your information!

Enjoy!

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Chapter One

_**Fire**_

My name is Ivy. I'm not extraordinary, I'm not special, but I'm not completely normal. However, I do consider myself to be quite clever. But that's only to feed my ego a bit. Otherwise I'm rather plain- brown hair and eyes, nothing spectacular. I was born in the year 2185. I was 16 years old when I first met HIM. The one and only Doctor.

But, it was not the first time I'd heard his name. I'll explain later. It was May of 2201. I was walking down the street going back to my flat in London. I didn't have much on my mind, I was just strolling, coming back from an overnight trip to my friend's house. I stopped near the river to look at the statue of a spaceship. It read, "Never Forget". While lost in thought, I realized that there was kind of a commotion up ahead, near my house, so I ran over, wondering what on _earth_ could be the matter.

Fire. If there's one thing no human could perfectly master, it's fire. My whole building was up in flames. And they were spreading. I could hear fireplanes on their way. I gazed up at the voracious orange flickers as they destroyed my home. It took a minute for it to really sink in for me. I stood there, gaping, with absolutely nothing in my mind except for the fire. Somewhere along the way, I lost my breath. Time stood still.

Someone came up to me while I was still reeling with shock, defying the slow-motion catastrophe that was my world at that moment. A man, actually. A gorgeous man. Brown hair, old fashioned suit and strange shoes that didn't seem to fit his attire.

"Excuse me, do you live here?" He asked.

"Yeah, uh.. yeah… I did, anyway," I replied gravely, not taking my eyes off the building.

"This is important. Have you noticed any- erm- small creatures running around lately? Like, furry?"

I looked at him blankly for a second, he stared right back at me, and I could see that this was, in fact, important. Maybe he'd owned them. 'Or maybe', said a little voice at the back of my head, 'He can help, as long as he has this information'. For some reason, he needed to know straight away, "Yes. I have noticed some rats from time to time. There's a nest on the roof. But the owner of the building had hired someone to kill them."

"Do you live with your family?"

"Yes, but," I answered, looking around again, "I don't see any of them." I heard a scream from high up. Around what I believed was my floor. I gasped, tears coming to my eyes.

"They were probably asleep!" I cried, "They work nights at the science centre. Mum! Dad!" I brought my hand to my face, horrified.

The man put his hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes. I could feel myself wanting to sob, to let the tears fall from my eyes… but they didn't. I held it back.

"I'm The Doctor," he said calmly, "I can help. You know the layout of the building. Come with me."

I followed him numbly in the slightest chance that he might be able to help. He ran into a blue box of some sort, and came back out, "Now, tell me what floor they're on. I need to go to the roof, but I'll go there first. The structural damage shouldn't be too bad yet, so they should still be alive."

"I want to go with you."

"No. I can't do that. You might get killed."

"If they die, I die. Understood? Now, c'mon," I said quite sternly.

He frowned and led me into his box. It was bigger on the inside than on the outside. It was incredible. I gasped, but that didn't stop me. My parents needed to be saved, and whatever was on the roof needed to be found. I closed my gaping mouth and asked, "What now?"

"Well, we'll be there soon," He was playing with buttons and levers and switches, jumping all over the main console… thing. Then he looked back up at me, "What's your name?"

"Ivy. Regalson"

"Nice to meet you Ivy. Let's go."

"Where??"

"Outside," he grabbed my hand as I was standing there and pulled me outside of the- well, the box. We were on the roof, to my astonishment. And sure enough, there was the nest I'd spoken of. And on the giant nest was-

"A giant fire-breathing rat? What?!" I stated, dumbfounded. The Doctor nodded as the rat exhaled smoke.

"You're somewhat right. It's not a rat, though." He walked up to it and to my surprise, pulled its head off. It's a robot. He pulled out a shiny metal thing and pushed a button on it that made the robot's wires explode.

"Done. Let's find your parents."

He opened the roof door with his little pen-like gadget. I ran ahead of him until I came to the floor directly below. It was all smoke. I covered my mouth with my shirt, coughing, as I ran to the flat. The fire escape was open, I noticed. I took the opportunity to grab things that were important and shove them in my knapsack as I looked for them. The fire was only getting worse. I threw some clothes and essential information in that bag. A thought popped into my head. Long ago, a wise woman had told me to keep a certain disc safe for her. She told me never to lose it. So I grabbed it. It was then, when I ran into the bathroom, that I noticed my parent's medication was missing. I glanced in the next room, my parent's bedroom. My father was on the floor, looking at the ceiling, bottle of pills in hand, white as alabaster. My thoughts raced to my mother. I ran to the fire escape and looked down to see that in the explosion that had happened right before we got there, she had fallen. I went into shock. I could feel my heartbeat slow as I yelled.

A pair of hands dragged me away. The Doctor took me back onto the roof and into his box again. He threw bits of the robot into a bin near the main console, and then set me down on the bench. I was crying, I realized.

My life. My entire life had gone up in flames.

"Ivy. I'm so sorry," he said softly.

"I- my parents… My- my flat…" I looked up at him, "I'm alone. I'm an orphan. Everything burned!"

"Someone will take you in."

"I can't stay there, I won't," I shook my head to get rid of the tears, "What was with the rat?"

"It was a tool of a big company. I stopped the majority of the attack, allowing most to escape, but…" he hung his head, defeated. I grimaced. It was wrong for him to be upset. It just felt _wrong_. There was silence. That wise woman. I remembered her again. What she told me.

"You're THE Doctor." He just nodded, "I knew an old lady once. She used to tell me stories. All about you. Always about you. Never thought… never thought I'd meet you.

"What was her name?"

"I only ever heard her called Susan. She was my parents' boss, kind of. She owned the science lab. She tutored me. History, Science, Math. She was- an amazing person."

His face seemed stunned, "What happened to her?"

"She disappeared one day. No one knows where she went. But she was old," I explained, as he nodded, "She told me to give something to her grandfather."

I extracted the disc from my knapsack and handed it to him. He looked at it and sighed. I asked him if I should leave but he shook his head. He found a place to put the glowing disc in. The screen flickered from its normal symbols and hieroglyphics. A younger-looking Susan came on the screen.

"Hello grandfather. Susan here. If you're watching this, little Ivy has done her job. Of course, now she's only about six and I'll probably have to remind her about this, but still. Always thought she might draw your attention. She has a sort of- knack for that. I don't know how long it's been for you since you left me here, but it seems like a lifetime ago. I should be regenerating soon. Ivy is… almost like one of my own children. Sometimes I wish she were. She's brilliant, Grandfather, just give her the chance. But I know you. Of course, you might have changed. Older and wiser, so they say. I know you used to be rather impatient with people. But for all I know, it's been ten regenerations since you last saw me.

"Grandfather. I hope you're not alone. We used to have such a nice gang aboard the TARDIS. And please. Treat Ivy as if she were my own. Make sure she's not in trouble. Thank you, grandfather. Goodbye."

The Doctor looked shocked. Stunned, "After all these years… oh… Susan…"

I tried to console him, "She was so kind to me. Looked after me and everything," I explained, sniffing, "She was sort of a second mother. It was so hard for me when she vanished." I could see he was still shaken. I closed my eyes. Everything I had was gone.

"Anyway, I should go… I'm sorry." I turned for the door.

"No, please. Stay."

"Really?" I asked, hopefully. He smiled.

"You don't have any family or anyone to look after you?"

"No, my family's all gone now; it was just me, my mum, and dad. My friends… well, they're very few, and I don't want to burden them."

The Doctor frowned, "Hmm… Well, since Susan asked me to, and you clearly need help…"

"Gee, thanks."

The Doctor smiled again, "Why don't you stay with me for a while? Maybe just until you're old enough…"

"That would be incredible," I replied with a grin. After all the years of stories… Of course, I had lost my parents, and that was absolutely heartbreaking. I still felt the tear marks on my cheeks, but at least I had The Doctor. I've always strived to be an optimist.

"Great!" I could see he was pleased. I noticed no one else with him. Susan was right. He was alone.

"So where do I sleep?" I asked, grabbing my things.

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A/N again!- Hope you liked it. If you want more, review please. Suggestions, comments and constructive criticism VERY welcome. THANKS!


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